Don't Even Think About It (17 page)

After an exhausting day at the carnival, Mackenzie wobbled home.

Just as she was unlocking her front door, she saw a text from Cooper.

Meet me at that bench in Battery Park at 9 tonight if you want to talk.

Yes. Yes, yes, yes, she did want to talk. She wanted to do more than talk. She wanted to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him until he forgave her.

Now here she was, sitting on their bench at Battery Park in front of the water, still waiting for him. He was going to show, wasn’t he?

A few minutes passed before she heard his footsteps behind her. She also heard,
She’s here.

“Of course I’m here, I miss you,” she said, and turned around. She couldn’t help laughing. He had red paint all over his face.

I miss you.
“I’m Spider-Man,” he said instead.

“I figured. Listen, Cooper, I am so, so, so sorry about what—”

In the moonlight she saw that tears were dripping down his cheeks through the paint.

She hadn’t seen him cry since … well, since second grade when he fell off the seesaw and had to get stitches. It broke her heart right in half. “Oh God, Cooper, I can’t believe I did that to you.” Her voice cracked.
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

“It’s not just you,” he said slowly. He wiped the tears away with his sleeve, staining it red.
It’s my parents. Everyone. The Yankees.

“The Yankees?”

He hiccup-laughed. “Yeah.” He stood beside her and stared at the water ahead. “It’s everything. Do you want to walk?” he asked.

“Sure.” As she stood up, she took his hand. He didn’t stop her.

As they walked south, following the railing, he told her about his mother and father and about how everywhere he went he heard lies, and it was killing him.

“I’m sorry you had to learn such crap stuff about your parents,” she said.

“Have you heard things about yours, too?”

“I heard them having sex,” she said. “But that was it.”

At least they’re having sex with each other.
“Lucky,” he said.

“It didn’t feel lucky at the time,” she replied. From where they were standing, they had a perfect view of the Statue of Liberty.

“Let’s run away,” she said.

“To where?”

“Anywhere but here.” She took a step closer to him. “Do you think you can ever forgive me?”

He looked deep into her eyes.
I don’t know.

You don’t?

No. But I’m willing to try.

“You are?” she asked. Her throat choked up.

“Yeah.”

She gulped and the next thing she knew, tears were streaming down her cheeks too. She threw her arms around him. “I just love you so much.”
I’ll never take you for granted again.

“I love you, too,” he said. “I just hate everyone else right now.”

“Me too,” she said. “Especially the other Espies.”

“I know.”

“And they listen to everything. With their beady little purple eyes. Let’s ignore them. What do we need them for?”

“They’re hard to ignore.”

“We can do it,” she said, lacing her fingers through his. “We can make our own little bubble. It’ll be us against them.”

“Us against the world,” he said.

She leaned toward him.
Can I kiss you?

You’re going to get red face paint all over you.

I would love to get red face paint all over me.

I hope I don’t regret this,
he thought, and then closed his eyes and kissed her.

We were so over it the next week.

We were used to our parents pretending to listen to us while they were really thinking about meetings, or what to make for dinner, or in Mackenzie’s case, her dad’s new Viagra prescription.

And we were getting increasingly annoyed with each other.

Homeroom was the worst. Renée and Adam—on the rare occasion he showed up—were suddenly the most popular people in the class. They were a wall of interference. Otherwise our thoughts spread through the room like germs after a sneeze.

Still taking those Addies, Courtney? … Levi, why don’t you go to a dentist? … Are Cooper and Mackenzie back together? … Clearly—they’re sitting in a corner together. … What about Bennett? … I guess Cooper forgave her. … I wouldn’t have forgiven her. … Good thing I’m not you. … Cooper, ignore them. … I’m trying to but they’re so loud. … Hey, Olivia, how’s Lazar? … Did you have to go see another boring-ass play? … They’re not that boring. … Don’t lie. You were just thinking about how boring they are. … Is something up with BJ and Tess? … Why? … She’s ignoring him. … Tess is in love with Teddy. … But Teddy likes Sadie
.
 … Is he using mouthwash yet, Sadie? … It was only one time! He had souvlaki for lunch. … Hey, Tess, are you fantasizing about me yet?

Tess froze. Then she slammed her eyes shut. She might have spent a few minutes reminiscing about her seven minutes in heaven. But BJ could never, ever know.

He knew. We all knew.

We all closed our eyes for as much time as we could, but Ms. Velasquez was starting to get frustrated.

“Are you guys not getting enough sleep? Next person I find napping in class is getting detention!”

Just what we wanted—more time in school. At least in our apartments no one could hear us.

Except for the twins. We all felt bad for the twins, who shared a room.

The rest of our classes weren’t as bad. Every hour of every day was a barrage of other people’s thoughts—their secrets, their lies, their stupidities—but we didn’t have to worry about being heard ourselves. We put multiple non-Espies between us as buffers. We needed space.

Except at test time. Then we all parked ourselves next to the smartest person in the room. Pi hated it. She hated it more when Jon was in our class and we all crowded around him. Jordana and Courtney even got into a telepathic fight about who sat next to him. Chair grabbing was involved. Jon thought it was because of his new cologne.

Lunchtime was awkward too. Cooper and Mackenzie left school for lunch. Olivia sat with Lazar. Tess avoided BJ. And Sadie. And Teddy, obviously, although he wasn’t one of us. She started to skip lunch entirely and spend the time studying in the library. She only lost two pounds, but she aced all her work that week. She didn’t even need to sit next to the smartest person in the class.

And Pi? Well, Pi was watching us. Pi was definitely watching everyone. Pi was always watching. She was watching the redheaded fake nurse who was wandering our hallways.

Olivia had been the first to see her. She’d gone to the nurse’s room on Wednesday with a headache. She’d ignored it until eleven but then realized she needed some Advil or she’d have to go home. So she’d made her way down to Nurse Carmichael’s office and knocked on her door.

Instead of Nurse Carmichael, a redheaded woman had answered.

“Hi there!” the woman said in a voice that was way too cheerful. “What can I help you with?”
Does she have it?

Olivia wondered what this woman thought she had. Was something contagious going around school? The flu? Meningitis? “Where’s Ms. Carmichael?”

“She’s on vacation,” the woman said.
Permanent vacation. Screwup.
“I’m Suzanna.”

What screwup? What Olivia wanted to know was what Carmichael had screwed up, but of course she couldn’t ask.

“Come on in,” Suzanna coaxed.

Olivia did not want to get exposed to meningitis. “Oh, never mind. I thought I had a headache, but I feel fine now. It’s gone.”

She’s panicking. Maybe she has it.
The woman took hold of her arm. “Are you sure? Why don’t you come in for a few minutes? And chat?”

Olivia was officially freaked out. “I should get to class.”

“Wait. What’s your name? What grade are you in? You have very unusual eyes,” the woman said.
That’s the color!

Oh. She knew about the ESP. How did she know about the ESP? Olivia took a step back.

Olivia’s mom had noticed her eyes the night before. “Are your eyes itchy? They look strange. Do you have pinkeye?” she’d asked.

“No,” Olivia had answered, avoiding her gaze. “I’m just wearing purple eyeliner.”

In theory, purple eyes were cool. But in reality, it was supremely creepy when one day our eyes were brown and the next they had a lilac tint. It was like we were turning into vampires or something.

“We’re becoming undead!” Edward had cheered.

Olivia ran away from Suzanna without answering any questions. She recounted the story at our next Espies meeting.

“Who do you think she was?” Tess asked.

Do you think she knows about us?

Is she the person Pi heard by the tent?

Definitely seems like it.

She’s spying on us.

Why would a substitute nurse spy on us?

Maybe she’s not a substitute nurse!

I bet she’s from the CDC!

She wants to round us up and have us quarantined!

She wants to take away our telepathy!

What should we do?

We should confront her.

“No,” Pi said. “Even if the nurse suspects something, she doesn’t know anything for sure. If she did, she would have said something to us. If we approach her, we’re just going to look suspicious.”

Jordana pointed a lime-green nail to her eyes. “We already look pretty suspicious.”

“She’s probably gathering evidence against us,” Levi said.

“Maybe she is,” Pi admitted. “So let’s not give her any. Avoid her. And we all have to be on our best behavior. In school and outside of it.”

We nodded.

Pi stood up. “That means in school no one visits the infirmary. If you see her coming, walk the other way. Keep your distance. Don’t blow it out of school either. Stay in control. No drinking.”

No one spike the punch at Mackenzie’s Sweet.

No pot either.

Or Addies.

Why would you take an Addie at a Sweet?

You guys are no fun.

“Just stay under the radar,” Pi repeated. “Got it?”

We nodded. Once again we had a plan.

If only all of us had stuck to it.

“Olivia, it’s your turn,” Mr. Roth said.

Here it was. The moment of truth.

Speech time.

Again.

Lyme disease, Lyme disease, Lyme disease.

She could do this. She was not the same person she had been two weeks earlier. She was different. She had a boyfriend. She could hear people’s thoughts. She had confidence.

Or, at least, more than she’d had before.

She stood up. Slowly.

Is she going to pass out again?

She looks nervous.

Olivia tried to smile. Lyme disease, Lyme disease, Lyme disease. Did she have Lyme disease? No, she did not.

She turned around to face the crowd.

She definitely looks nervous.

Lazar gave her a thumbs-up.

She’s going to do it,
Renée thought.
Go Olivia!

Yes! She could do this! She knew how her speech started:
In Ridgefield, Connecticut!
She looked at Lazar and smiled.

He smiled back.
She’s not going to fall again, is she? That would be so embarrassing.

Olivia narrowed her eyes. Embarrassing for her? Or embarrassing for him?

The room started to sway.

“Olivia?” Mr. Roth asked. “Are you okay?”

She didn’t feel okay. She felt sick. Her headache was back and it was a bad one. Oh God. She was going to pass out again. She was going to pass out and hit her head and this time she really was going to die.

“You know what?” she said. “I think I need to sit down.” Without looking at her teacher, she returned to her seat and slumped into her chair. Mission unaccomplished. Olivia felt like crying.

Lazar gave her a puppy-dog face.
At least she didn’t pass out.

Wow,
Pi thought,
Olivia, your boyfriend is a real asshole.

That’s it,
Renée thought.
She needs my help. I’m practicing with her after school.

“Olivia, we’ll need to discuss this after class,” Mr. Roth said sternly.

When the bell rang, Olivia slumped her way over to Mr. Roth. “You’re getting one more chance. That’s the best I can do. Or you fail the assignment. Next week. Got it?”

She got it, all right.

*  *  *

Teddy cornered Tess after class. “You’re coming with me to the ball fields to watch the baseball game. No excuses. Let’s move.”

“Fine,” she said. It was a nice day. It wasn’t a terrible idea to get some fresh air. Sit outside. Cheer on Nick. Support BHS against Millennium.

Most of us were going to the game. It was the semifinals. We wanted to support Nick. We might not have all been friends before this, but there was nothing like having ESP to bond you to a person.

Tess looks really good,
Teddy thought.

Was he noticing her because of the two pounds she lost? Probably not. His attention was more likely because of her new V-neck that showed off her cleavage. BJ had been thinking about her breasts all through homeroom. And so had other boys, actually, as the day went on. Not one of them had said a word. Without ESP, Tess would never have thought a single one of these guys found her sexy. Maybe they always had, and she never knew?

They climbed the bleachers behind the catcher. Nick was walking toward the mound. Teddy and Tess cheered loudly.

From where they sat, Tess could see the catcher making those weird hand motions to the pitcher. She could also hear the catcher’s thoughts:
Try a fastball.

Then Nick’s thoughts as he held the bat:
Fastball. Got it.

The pitcher threw the ball; Nick swung and sent it over the fence.

“Home run!” the umpire yelled.

“Go, Nick!” Tess hollered along with everyone else.

“He’s been playing so well this week,” Teddy said. “I knew he could do it.”

Yeah, he’d been playing well. With a little help.

Tess smiled. Nick was doing great. She was here with Teddy and he thought she looked good. In fact, lots of boys did. Life was good. Tess felt the sun on her face. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment.

Then she opened them and heard Teddy think,
There she is!
Her heart plummeted. Of course that was why Teddy had wanted to come. Keith was on the team, so Sadie would be there. Why hadn’t it occurred to her?

A text dinged on her phone. BJ.

You look like you’re about to kill him.

Tess looked up and spotted BJ sitting high in the bleachers. He waved. She typed:

He’s thinking about her again.

BJ looked down at his phone and wrote back:

He only likes her because she’s unavailable. You have to show him that you’re unavailable.

Tess: And how do I do that?

BJ: Come kiss me.

Ha. She shook her head. Did he really think she was going to cross the field and kiss him in front of everyone?

Tess: Yeah right.

BJ: I’m coming over.

By the time she looked up, he was already walking toward them.

Oh God.

“Hi there,” he said, and squeezed onto the bench beside her. “What’s up, peeps?”

You are not going to kiss me,
Tess thought.

You so want me to,
he thought back. With a totally straight face, he put his hand on her knee.

She wanted to punch him. Kind of.

I’m growing on you, aren’t I?
He winked, then turned to Teddy. “Hey, Teddy, my man, what’s happening?”

Teddy looked back and forth between Tess and BJ’s hand on her knee.
What the hell is that?
“Not much,” he answered. “Just watching the game.”

He’s freaking out,
Tess told BJ.

Of course he is. Can I touch your breast now? That would really freak him out.

You are not to touch my breast.

Not even the left one?

No breast-touching at all.
She laughed. She couldn’t help it.

“Uh, what’s new with you, BJ?” Teddy asked.

“Nothing much. Trying to convince your friend here to go out with me sometime, but she keeps turning me down.”

BJ!

What? I’m helping you!

“She does?”
She never told me that.

“She thinks she’s too good for me, but she’ll come around. It’s only a matter of time.”

Teddy clenched his jaw.
She’s thinking about it? She cannot go out with that sleazeball.

What’s he thinking?
BJ wondered.
You’re right between us. You’re blocking his thoughts.

Tess smiled.
He’s thinking you’re a sleazeball.

He turned to look at her.
Do you think I’m a sleazeball?

Tess gave the question some thought.
I used to. But I guess … well, everyone else is thinking the same things as you. At least you’re saying them.

BJ raised an eyebrow. Then his hand began to creep slowly up her leg.

I spoke too soon.

He gave a slight nod.
Let’s play chicken.

She put her hand on his. Then she leaned over and very slowly gave him a long kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for coming to visit.”

BJ laughed.
Am I being dismissed?

I don’t like this one bit,
Teddy thought.

Holy crap. He’s jealous! It’s working!

BJ stood up and saluted them.
Good luck. The offer is still good if you want me to keep going.

She shook her head.
Goodbye!

“You’re going to Mackenzie’s Sweet, right?” BJ asked.

“Yeah,” Tess answered. Things with her and Mackenzie were definitely strange, but she wouldn’t miss the Sweet. That would be unforgivable. Plus there would be dancing.

BJ jumped down the stairs. “Save me a slow dance!”

“I’ll think about it!” she hollered back.

The girls in the row in front of her were buzzing.
Does BJ like Tess?

Tess could feel Teddy’s eyes on her. “We can go to the party together if you want,” he said.

Huh?
She turned to him.

I can’t believe BJ was sleazing up my Tess.

Seriously? Since when was she his Tess?

He squirmed in his seat. “You’re not really going to go out with him, are you?”

She tried to sound flippant. “I might. He’s funny.” And honest.

“Funny-looking,” Teddy said.
She’s so not his type. Although, she is looking sexy.

She was looking sexy? She preened in her seat.

“He’s not funny-looking,” she finally answered. BJ was a lot of things, but funny-looking wasn’t one of them. He was hot. He had great shoulders. Really big hands. She felt herself flush. She was suddenly very, very, very glad that he wasn’t sitting next to her right then.

*  *  *

Mackenzie and Cooper skipped the baseball game. They went to dinner instead. Like they had every night that week.

Cooper had been spending as little time as he could at his apartment. “I miss you!” Ashley cried, wrapping her arms around his leg.
Why does Cooper not take me with him all the time?

He felt bad for Ashley. He missed her too, but he just couldn’t take being at home. He couldn’t face anything. Except Mackenzie. If he could just focus on Mackenzie, everything would be okay.

He was dreading Saturday.

“Gee, thanks a lot,” Mackenzie said as they waited for a table at Kitchenette. “Aren’t you excited to see me all dressed up?”

“You are going to look amazing,” he said. “It’s just everyone’s going to be there, lying. My parents, too.”

“Sorry about that. My parents insisted on inviting some of their friends whose kids were coming. I didn’t know, so …” She kissed Cooper hard on the lips. “I’m sorry they’re coming. But I think it’ll be okay,” she told him. “As long as we’re together. A team. It’s us against them.”

They thought they could hide. They thought they could separate themselves from us.

Impossible.

There was no escaping us.